“Auerbach came to my house and said, ‘You can come and play for the mighty Boston Celtics.’ I gave it a thought. The Celtics, a 61-win team in the previous season, featured a transcendent rookie forward named Larry Bird and owned the first overall pick.
And he was - and still is - 7-foot-4.Īfter Sampson averaged 14.9 points, 11.2 rebounds, and 4.6 blocks his freshman season, Boston Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach tried to convince him to enter the 1980 NBA draft. A franchise center who moved like Russell, passed like Wilt, and projected the same aloof immensity as Kareem? Yes. The sport had never seen anyone with Sampson’s potent blend of height and athleticism. How indeed?ĭuring Sampson’s first season for the University of Virginia 33 years ago, Sports Illustrated trumpeted his arrival with a cover story and screaming headline: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, INTRODUCING THE ONE AND ONLY RALPH SAMPSON! HE DUNKS! HE BLOCKS SHOTS! HE DRIBBLES BEHIND HIS BACK! HE’S 7-FOOT-4 - AND STILL GROWING! That’s five exclamation marks, one less than the number of times Sampson appeared on the magazine’s cover over the next four years. “How could a 7-foot-4 person disappear?” he asked. He mentioned hearing people say that he’d disappeared of late. Ralph Sampson spoke briefly at a press conference one day before being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
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